For the first time in our history, Harvard Medical School faculty from the Division on Addictions in partnership with sports-betting site, bwin, has examined online gaming by carefully studying the actual online behavior of players. In an anonymous study, researchers observed the actual behavior of more than 40,000 active bwin users for a period of eight months. This ground-breaking report is now available at the library of Division on Addictions.

To date, only speculations have been available to guide our understanding of the scale of gaming and problematic gaming behavior among online sports betting.

Initial results from the long-term study indicate that the potential of sports betting to cause a problem is considerably lower than generally presumed.

“This is a landmark project for both the gaming industry and science because we are studying the actual gambling behavior of a large sample of Internet gamblers for the very first time. I am proud of bwin for committing to using science as a guide to assuring the welfare of their customers and to advancing the safety of the Internet and new technology,” said Dr. Howard Shaffer of Harvard Medical School.

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